Karlsruhe, Germany: Tourist friendly

Remember my glowing description of the hotel suite we have on the top floor of the hotel, how I loved all the big windows? Sunday night powerful thunderstorms came through and I thought we’d be blown away. The rain battered the windows, the wind howled, and suddenly being surrounded by all that glass seemed menacing. In the morning the sidewalks were covered with leaves and small branches, and the temperatures were mercifully far lower than Sunday’s high of 95.

Karlsruhe has proved to be a tourist friendly town. It has a fully staffed visitors’ center, a large park and a zoo, a big market square, several parks and playgrounds, and a small mall, all within walking distance of the hotel. E spent Monday getting us oriented.

We ate lunch in a café near the market called Multi Culti. I ordered a pork chop with curry sauce and pommes frites. Somewhere we had a miscommunication, despite the waitress’s ability to speak English. What I received was entirely different—a slice of tender roast beef wrapped around a filling that had corned beef and pickle in it. Sounds gross, but it was delicious. Instead of pommes frites, I received spatzle. They were awesome. E had a pasta dish with a cream sauce and spinach and shrimp. The kids had fried chicken strips and frites. The food was excellent and reasonably priced, one of the best meals I’ve had in Europe.

*****

World Cup Fever—ask me if I like sports and I’d say no, but I’ve loved watching World Cup games on the hotel TV. I’m pulling for England and it has absolutely nothing to do with how cute David Beckham is—really, it’s all about his foot work and the game saving goal against Ecuador. Monday I cheered for the Italians over the Aussies, and no it was not because the Italians had snappy blue uniforms as opposed to the Aussies icky yellow and green ones. And I assure you Luca Toni and all the players with great hair did not influence my allegiance in the least. I’m a serious sports fan. It’s all about the fine points of the game you know.

After dinner Monday we took a walk and the streets were peppered with people draped in Italian flags and cars cruising and honking their horns to celebrate the Italians victory. People have decorated their cars with flags representing the teams they support. The Americans were knocked out early and needless to say, don’t have fans over here. I have an official World Cup English jersey. If I’m brave, I’ll wear it tomorrow. Go Becks!

****

The German word for soccer, fussball, is pronounced “foosball.” Wonder if foosball tables originated in Germany?

Saw a tram with a display indicating it was heading to “Bad Wild.” See you have to get on the bad bus if want to be wild.

June 27, 2006

Comments

[Ash]

So you *are* enjoying the food! Germans know how to give good service and their showers/bathrooms are the nicest we've experienced in Europe so far. I am wondering if we should take a trip there this summer now that you have me thinking about the food. Enjoy the aircon and the pool!

Try and find a place that has 'ice cream pizza' - if you ask the concierge at the hotel they should direct you to a good place. Its a German 'thing' and its SO nice! A pizza of ice cream topped with raspberry or strawberry sauce (for the tomato topping) and then fruit for the other toppings. Or you can get 'spaghetti ice cream' - same idea. VERY YUMMY! Seek it out!

[V-Grrrl]

Ash,

On your advice, we tried the spaghetti ice cream. Awesome. The food is the best I´ve had in Europe. And yes, the portions are very generous!

[Ash]

So glad you found a spaghetti ice cream place :)

[Char]

Oh I completely forgot about spaghetti ice cream!! I love that stuff!

So glad to hear you are having fun.

[MIchelle C.]

Normally I'd comment on the food section of your blog entry, because I LOVE food! But, I have to comment on your paragraph on the World's Cup instead. Last July my niece married a man from Italy named Massimo. He had been in our country (the U.S.) just a few months when they started dating and only got his green card (or whatever it is they get to legalize them in the US) a couple of weeks ago. Well, we got together with him and his wife for the fourth of July and watched the World Cup game together. It was AMAZING how excited he got watching the game. I didn't realize how big soccer was over in Europe. He was screaming in Italian at the top of his lungs and none of us knew what he was talking about. In the last couple of minutes of the game, (after Italy scored) he gets a call on his cell phone from his dad calling him from ITALY! They watch the last minute of the game together and all of the sudden Massimo starts screaming again. Slowly the realization comes over us that Italy has scored again, but we haven't seen it yet on t.v. It turns out that there is an eight second or so delay on the satellite feed over to the states. Massimo's dad was enjoying the game in Europe on his television just a little bit quicker than we were. It was really sweet watching them "bond" over soccer from thousands of miles away.